Suntanned Flowers
by antiquiities
Summary: Cameron knew she was a hopeless romantic, but it didn’t stop her from her thoughts. CameronCuddy.


A/N: This was written for the prompt 'summer' on my table for the femslash50 community on Livejournal.**  
**

**Title: Suntanned Flowers**

**Author: Sam  
Fandom: House, M.D.  
Pairing: Cameron/Cuddy  
Rating: PG-13  
Prompt: 024. Summer  
Word Count: 759**

Growing up, Cameron always remembers that her summers were spent lying out on the grass in the afternoon and listening to the neighbors mow their lawns, the drone coming closer as they neared the fence, then backing off as they rounded the corner and continued back the way they came, a constant whirr of noise until it ceased and the silence was almost too loud until a bird screeched or a leaf rustled.

She would lie on her stomach, skirt draped over her legs, and pick at the elegant stems of grass and watch them float from her fingers to the ground, fascinated by how they twirled as they fell.

She liked to watch the sky too, clouds strewn across it, the white contrasting with the deep blue you can only get on summer days.

When she went to college she always tried to take a break during summer, though her studies didn't leave her much of one. She would go to the beach and walk along the sand for hours, watching the waves and looking out onto the horizon. She liked the haze over the sea, the breeze that was always there, blowing in from distant oceans, across other worlds far from her own. She knew she was a hopeless romantic, but it didn't stop her from her thoughts.

Now, these days she likes to go to the large park near her apartment and walk among the suntanned flowers and dark green trees, the air is always clear and she can forget the world for a while.

Sometimes she sees Cuddy there, and Cuddy will talk to her for a little while, she's usually jogging. Sometimes they walk together, Cameron likes to be around Cuddy outside of work, her suit doesn't make her sharp, biting, and she smells like summer and the sky and the dew on the grass in the mornings.

Sometimes they go to the café and drink coffee. Cameron likes those days, they laugh and find out they have things in common. She doesn't have many friends outside of work, and soon she and Cuddy have made a regular occurrence of their meetings in the park, enough to call Cuddy a friend. Cameron likes having Cuddy as a friend. She's older, knows things about the world that Cameron will listen to for hours until they both realize that its late, the sun is slowly dying for the night, and they'll go their separate ways, Cuddy will go right and Cameron will go left.

But when one of these days comes around again and Cameron feels the strange fluttering in her stomach like she's been feeling for a while now, whenever she sees Cuddy, she changes their pattern, tests their boundaries and asks Cuddy if she wants to go left instead of right. Come home with Cameron.

Cameron's stomach does the strange fluttering and a warm feeling goes through her when Cuddy gives a little smile and says yes.

Soon Cuddy at her place is something regular too. Sometimes when they're watching television Cameron will sit closer and let her leg rest against Cuddy.

And when Cameron finally gives into the nagging feeling she's been getting every time Cuddy comes around and puts a hand on her arm as Cuddy is about to go out the door, she is surprised when Cuddy places a kiss at the corner of her mouth and then disappears before Cameron can react.

Cuddy doesn't come back for a little while after that. But one warm night Cameron hears a knock on her door and Cuddy is standing there, and Cameron doesn't exactly know what she's doing but she's pulling Cuddy inside and kissing her.

She knows this won't become a regular occurrence.

She knows why.

Summer is almost over. Cuddy is a summer thing. Now Cameron attributes summer to Cuddy as well as the beaches and the grass and the lawnmowers and all her memories.

Cameron wants summer to go forever; she doesn't want it to end. Cameron never wants things to end, even though it's inevitable.

Cameron does know one thing though, and she assures Cuddy of it when she goes out her door for the last time.

They'll be able to walk through the park on the hot days when there are only whispers of clouds in the sky, and they'll walk through the suntanned flowers and dark green trees where the air is always clear and they can forget the world for a while.

They will, because there is another thing that is inevitable.

Summer will always arrive once more.


End file.
